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zarahzoe's review
5.0
Incredibly dense and incredibly interesting, and a piece of german history noone ever told me about. I learned so much!
adrianlarose's review against another edition
4.0
Covers queer Berlin (certainly not just gay) from the mid-1800s to, well, the election of Hitler (1933). Given this time span, the author zooms in with good detail on the political work of associations, and the effects and persistence of "Paragraph 175" the German law against certain homosexual acts (not against homosexuality as such). Occasional forays into bars and personal lives are present, but that is not the goal of the book - it is much more of a history of how the struggle for rights evolved in that era, and how "ahead of its time" Berlin was in that respect. It ends at at fitting time, given the total destruction imposed in 1933 onward. The text is academic, but clearly written and readable for an academic book. I would quibble with some repetition between chapters, which could use better organization (they are vaguely chronological but also thematic), and with a desire to know more about the personal lives of the main players. But those details may be lost to the past - no doubt Paragraph 175, which was only truly repealed in the 1990s despite a near pass at doing so in the 1920s described in the book, made recording such details a risky endeavour.
kiperoo's review against another edition
4.0
Very good overview of the backdrop and some of the main players. Pairs nicely with Moreck's Ein Führer durch das lasterhafte Berlin.
rachbake's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
inspiring
sad
slow-paced
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: War, Suicide, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexism, Outing, Homophobia, Police brutality, Adult/minor relationship, and Addiction